Adaptive capacity and institutional evolution in contemporary pastoral societies

This paper draws on longitudinal datasets from Mongolia’s Gobi region to analyse the role of endogenous and donor-initiated institutions in shaping pastoralists’ adaptive capacities and strategies. The continued predominance of mobile pastoralism as a rural livelihood strategy in post-Soviet Mongolia has been accompanied by significant transformations of the institutional framework which regulates resource use. Donor-initiated projects of herders’ group formation and devolution of resource rights are implicated both in the production of new institutional partnerships and the reconfiguration of existing institutions, these in turn being linked to the re-emergence of what may be deemed ‘traditional’ as well as the development of more novel innovations and adaptations. At present, there is little understanding of how contemporary donor projects may facilitate particular adaptive practices and with what results over short and longer time horizons. This paper explores these important omissions, with reference to empirical materials and both theoretical and policy debates.

► Focuses on pastoralist communities in Mongolia’s Gobi region.
► Analyses the roles of institutions and donor interventions in adaptive strategies.
► Informal institutions are identified as central in shaping adaptive strategies.
► Institutional access, dynamism and flexibility are critical considerations.
► Sustainability of innovations are compromised by poor institutional articulation.